With her jumper one minute into the first half of Saturday's matinee, senior tri-captain Jessica Powers launched her team on a 16-3 scoring barrage, clinching a 58-35 victory over the rickety Connecticut College Camels.
After losing to Wesleyan 62-50 the previous night, the team rebounded to put the breaks on a five-game skid, improving its record to 8-10 overall and 2-4 in the NESCAC heading into February. The loss dropped the Camels to 6-13, and solidified their hold on last place in the conference with an 0-6 record.
After never recovering from a 12-3 Cardinal run to open the Friday night face-off, the Jumbos refused to be on the short end of another early offensive outburst against Conn College.
"Each game, we learn from the game before," Powers said. "We came out ready to go against [Conn College], and took out our frustrations on them. We knew we couldn't let them go on a run against us."
Shooting 53.1 percent from the floor in the first half, Tufts built a 37-18 lead going into halftime.
"We definitely came out of the block well on Saturday," coach Carla Berube said. "We turned up the defensive pressure and [Conn College] had trouble getting shots off and scoring. We were pleased. We've often struggled starting games with intensity and emotion; but on Saturday, we had high energy and that's why we started off so well."
The team pushed the ball up the court on the offensive end in the first half, yielding open lay-ups and easy points. With this pattern of play, the Jumbos racked up 18 assists, substantially more than their average of 10.6 dishes per game.
In the second half, Tufts shot only 24.3 percent, primarily as a result of more jump shots and fewer fast-break points.
The Jumbos got 27 points from their subs, and Berbue cited the talent of the team's bench as a key asset.
"One of our strengths is our depth," Berube said. "We can go eight, nine, 10, even 11 deep. Anyone can play and contribute. If someone's off, we can always get someone else in the game to fill the void."
Friday evening's matchup in Middletown, Conn. against the 13-5 Wesleyan Cardinals was a different story for the Jumbos.
Triggered by their 12-3 spurt to open the game, the home team shot a sparkling 60 percent from the floor on their way to a 34-10 lead with 2:40 remaining in the first half. Tufts edged closer before intermission, however, scoring eight straight points to shrink the deficit to 34-18. Even with this run, the Jumbos shot a dismal 20 percent from the floor in the first period.
"[Wesleyan] put together [its] biggest runs when we didn't get back on our transition defense," junior forward Laura Jasinski said. "Our open shots didn't fall and a high percentage of their shots were lay-ups. When we changed up our energy on defense with some zone, we began to play better."
In the second half, the team whittled the lead down to eight with four and a half minutes remaining, but the Wesleyan lead was too much to overcome, and the Cardinals handed the Jumbos their ninth loss in 11 games.
The Jumbos will transition into February with four games remaining before the NESCAC tournament. With three of these games coming against conference teams, the Jumbos' fate will be determined by its February performance, as only the top eight teams out of ten qualify for the postseason tournament.
"We're looking to carry the energy from the [Conn College] game into our next games and put together the pieces," Jasinski said. "We need to work on not digging ourselves in a big hole to start the games and hopefully we'll pull out the close games that we are capable of winning. These are big games coming up, and they should help build something to carry over to the playoffs."
